UN, European Union step up fight against Daesh after Paris attacks

A French soldier stands guard in fornt of Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower following attacks that kill …

The European Union is deploying teams to Greece and Italy where hundreds of thousands of people have arrived by sea this year to help determine whether new arrivals are refugees fleeing war or persecution, or economic migrants simply seeking a better life. That man carried a Syrian passport naming him as Ahmad Al-Mohammad, 28, though it’s unclear whether it was authentic.

Belgium has been at the heart of investigations into the Paris attacks after links emerged to Brussels, and the poor district of Molenbeek in particular.

At least one suspect from the deadly Paris attacks is at large, and was last seen crossing into Belgium.

The prosecutor’s office said it was not yet clear whether Abaaoud blew himself up.

Contrary to initial reports based on information from prosecutors, she did not blow herself up, a police source said Friday, adding that the suicide bomber was instead thought to have been a second man.

The UN Security Council Friday urged its members to ramp up their fight against Islamic State jihadists after the Paris attacks, as Europe said it would tighten border checks and Brussels issued its highest terror alert. “This is urgent”, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

French officials said on Saturday they could not ascertain for certain whether Abdeslam might be in France or Belgium.

The revelation comes as France announces applications to join the country’s defence forces have tripled in the week since the November 13 Paris attacks.

French president blamed the attack on Daesh a day after the attacks.

France’s senate on Friday voted to extend for three months a state of emergency, which expands police powers to carry out arrests and searches and allows authorities to forbid the movement of persons and vehicles at specific times and places.

“We now know that Abaaoud, the brain behind these attacks — one of the brains, because we must be particularly cautious, and we know what the threats are — was among the dead”, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the lower house of the French Parliament.

“They simply don’t have the same means as Britain’s MI5 or the DGSI (French intelligence agency)”, said Louis Caprioli, a former head of the DST, France’s former anti-terrorism unit.

It was initially believed that the 26-year-old would-be jihadist died when she let off her explosive vest at a flat in the suburb of Paris during a police raid on Wednesday morning. Belgian officials say two of the Paris attackers were French nationals who had been in living in Brussels.

Friends of Aitboulahcen described her as naive and vulnerable, but said they found it hard to believe she was an extremist.

The architect of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is confirmed dead.

Where was Abaaoud during the attacks?

The ISIS gunman wanted over the Paris terror attacks is Skyping friends from his hideout in Brussels, it has been claimed.

Marking a week since the carnage, some Parisians lit candles and paid tribute Friday night to the victims with silent reflection.